Rao had his biggest success to that point in the comedy horror film Stree (2018), and his first English-film role in the satire The White Tiger (2021).

Initially reluctant to accept the role due to its similarity to his previous work, he eventually agreed at the insistence of casting director Atul Mongia.

[28] His final release of the year was in a supporting role in Reema Kagti's thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within, where he played a cop.

[46] To prepare for the role, Rao lived in the small town of Sadri in the Pali district of Rajasthan for a month, grew a moustache and became well-versed with the dialect.

[49][50][51] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV noted that Rao "brings remarkable restraint to bear upon his interpretation of the disgustingly conservative city slicker who cannot see beyond his nose".

[52] In 2015, Rao appeared in a supporting role in the romantic comedy Dolly Ki Doli, co-starring Sonam K Ahuja, Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma.

Based on the life of Professor Ramchandra Siras (played by Manoj Bajpayee), Rao portrayed a journalist who attempts to uncover a story.

[61] Subhash K. Jha wrote that Rao "immerses himself in the judiciously assembled plot with such radiant authenticity that after a while we cease to watch the skill that underlines the outstanding performance".

[64] He followed this with another romantic comedy titled Bareilly Ki Barfi, directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and co-starring Kriti Sanon and Ayushmann Khurrana.

Namrata Joshi wrote: "Rao is a hoot and brings the house down with his chameleon turn and comic timing [the] a role that could have become a caricature in the hands of a lesser actor".

[68] A significant turning point in Rao's career came in Amit V. Masurkar's black comedy Newton in which he plays an upright government clerk sent on election duty to a Naxal-controlled town.

[73][74] His final theatrical release of the year was Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana with Kriti Kharbanda, which met with mixed critical response.

[77] Rao reunited with Mehta for the biographical crime film Omerta, where he portrays the role of terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

To prepare for the role, Rao watched several videos, documentaries and hate speeches by Sheikh to "gather a lot of hatred and anger" inside himself.

Rachit Gupta of The Times of India noted that Rao "handles the many shades of comedy, horror and romance with great ease".

Co-starring Sonam K Ahuja, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla, the film received ambivalent feedback critically but earned acclaim for its positive mainstream representation of homosexuality.

[91] His final acting venture of the year was Mikhil Musale's comedy Made in China in which he played a Gujarati businessman who receives a proposal to market a Chinese aphrodisiac in India.

[96] His next acting venture, the Anurag Basu-directed anthology film Ludo also featuring an ensemble cast of Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanya Malhotra, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Pankaj Tripathi, was directly streamed digitally on Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[101] David Rooney from The Hollywood Reporter noted that Rao "deftly balances a Western-schooled urge to tell himself he's a fair-minded man with the unmistakable air of privileged entitlement".

The film received mixed critical feedback and emerged as another box-office failure for Rao which was attributed to theatres being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[103] He next starred in Abhishek Jain's family drama Hum Do Hamare Do, in which he portrayed an orphan who deceives his fiancée (played by Sanon) by hiring people to pose as his parents.

[109] He was drawn to the role of a gay police officer due to the unique challenge it offered and, to prepare, he underwent an extensive diet and exercise regimen to achieve the physical appearance Kulkarni envisioned for the character.

[110] The film, and Rao's performance, earned unanimous critical acclaim with The Quint's Stutee Ghosh particularly taking note of "his vacant impassive expression that makes you realise how stifled he feels in a police uniform".

[121][122] After making a brief cameo appearance reprising his role from Stree in Bhediya, Rao starred alongside Radhika Apte and Huma Qureshi in Vasan Bala's Monica, O My Darling.

[125] Rao's performance was praised by Anna MM Vetticad of Firstpost who took note of his ability to distinguish his roles as police officers without becoming monotonous.

[130] He followed this by portraying a mechanic who is the reluctant heir to his father's criminal empire in Netflix's Guns & Gulaabs, reteaming with Raj & DK after Stree.

[131] Set against the backdrop of the 1990s in the fictitious town of Gulaabgani, Rao assists a police officer (played by Dulquer Salmaan) in bringing down a high-profile opium deal.

[138][139] Sampada Sharma of The Indian Express took note of problematic toxic masculine traits in Rao's character, particularly in the objectification of his wife, but Shilajit Mitra wrote that he "effectively sells the frustration and peevishness of a dunce like Mahendra".

[147][148] In Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, Rao and Triptii Dimri played newlyweds in 1997 searching for their missing sex tape.

[150] Mint's Udita Jhunjhunwala analysed that Rao had begun to be typecast as "the small-town boy facing a harrowing situation" following his role in Stree.